Key Takeaways
- Firearms Policy Coalition filed a motion for summary judgment against New Jersey’s one-gun-a-month law, claiming it violates the Second Amendment.
- The motion requests the court to block the law’s enforcement, arguing it imposes a purchase quota on citizens’ constitutional rights.
- The Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently weakened New Jersey’s gun laws, creating a supportive backdrop for FPC’s case.
- New Jersey has strict permitting requirements, and the law prevents approved buyers from purchasing more than one gun per month.
- The outcome of the case will have significant implications for New Jersey’s gun regulations and gun owners’ rights.
Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
CAMDEN, NJ — Firearms Policy Coalition filed a motion for summary judgment on September 14, 2026, asking the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey to strike down New Jersey’s one-gun-a-month law as a violation of the Second Amendment. The filing is a 23-page memorandum in support of the motion, entered as Docket 91-1 in case 1:24-cv-07098, a challenge FPC first brought in 2024.
Summary judgment is a request for the judge to decide the case now, without a trial, because the facts that matter are not in dispute and only the law is left to argue. FPC put it more bluntly in its announcement on X, calling the motion “a request to permanently block the law from being enforced.” The same post carried the line that gives this story its headline: “New Jersey’s ban is officially on notice.”
Here is what a one-gun-a-month law does in plain terms. A resident who has already cleared every hurdle the state puts in front of a buyer walks into a shop, completes a lawful purchase, and is then told to come back next month if he wants another. It is a purchase quota on a constitutional right. The state has decided how often a law-abiding citizen may exercise it.
That is the argument FPC is asking the court to accept, and the state will get its chance to answer. A motion for summary judgment is a request, not a ruling, and the court has decided nothing yet.
The venue matters. Any appeal from the District of New Jersey goes to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, and on July 17, 2026, that court, sitting en banc, meaning the full bench rather than a three-judge panel, struck down key parts of New Jersey’s assault weapons and magazine capacity bans, according to the Second Amendment Foundation and NRA-ILA. SAF said the Third Circuit adopted the Supreme Court’s recent Wolford v. Lopez clarification of what counts as an “arm” and that the ruling created a circuit split. The appellate court that supervises this district has just shown it will hold New Jersey’s gun laws to the Supreme Court’s framework. That is the backdrop the district judge is working against.
More from USA Carry:
New Jersey already runs one of the most demanding permitting regimes in the country, and I keep my guide to New Jersey’s concealed carry laws updated because the rules there change and the penalties for getting them wrong are severe. A buyer who has satisfied all of that is not a trafficking risk the state has identified. He is a citizen the state has already approved, and the law tells him to wait anyway. Part of a serious carry mindset is knowing exactly what the law lets you do and when, and right now the law in New Jersey answers that question with a calendar.
I will continue tracking FPC’s motion in the District of New Jersey.
Read the full article here